Parents Don't Worship Your Children

If I told you I sing praise songs about how awesome my boys are or that I get down on my knees each night and bow down to them, would think I had lost it?  I sure hope so.  Yet we have become a society that does just that in a variety of other ways, not as obvious but just as destructive to you and to them.

There is a message I keep seeing being shared on Facebook about a parent’s love for their children.  It says that everything the parent does is for their child and that he or she is what life is all about.  What a load of trash!  If you live for your child what a superficial, unsatisfying life you lead. 

Are we to sacrifice for our children? Yes.  Are we to love and nurture our children to the best of our ability?  Of course.  But never worship them.  God has a special name for this, maybe you have heard it before, it’s called idol worship and he was pretty serious about it even from the beginning.  Does commandment #1 ring a bell, as in, “You shall have no other god before me.”?  Exodus 20:3

When we orient our lives around our children we put them in a place where only God should go.  Is God okay with these little cuties taking his place on the throne of your heart?  Get real.  Keep yourself in check, even sincere Christ followers often fall prey to this mentality.  It may be the most socially acceptable and even applauded sin in modern society.
Here is what God’s word has to say about a depraved group that he was done with, “Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity…because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.” Romans 1:24-25

When we place our children higher than we ought (pedestal, stage or soapbox) or serve them as if their desires are our commands, we have bought the lie and dishonored God.  We begin to move our life’s spotlight off of our Savior and onto a small creature who has no power (except for the imagined power we attribute to him or her).  The exchange in the verse above has taken place.  It is absurd and disturbing, like saying, “No, thank you Potter, I don’t need you, I will take this little lump of clay and worship it instead.”

What a disservice we do to our children in this.  In our vain attempts to love them by praise and bending to their whims we distort their thoughts of God and cause them to become confused in their identity.  We train them up to be glory-thieves, claiming the attention due the Almighty.  No wonder we often raise selfish, prideful adults who think they have the power to determine who God is for themselves. 

We need to love our children enough to not praise them.  My goodness cheer for them in sports and drama, encourage them in working hard, tell them Good job! when they excel.  BUT give the praise to the God that grants them these gifts and created them to thrive as they do.  Make your children know that it is God working through them to display his greatness and that there is nothing better than being a conduit of God’s power.  Teach them to look heavenward and not inward for strength and wisdom.
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We as parents serve the purpose of being a human arrow for our children, always pointing up to our Creator and praising him.  Seeing in each other the attributes the Potter has especially designed for each of us, but remembering to rejoice in the greatness of the Potter and not the clay.  In a home that does this there is happiness and many reasons to celebrate. 
Ladies, the next time you look at your child, see the evidence of an awesome and praise-worthy Creator.  Know that the life of your son or daughter was created for the glory of God alone and there is no better purpose.